perverse and misguided sect.”31 Baha’is are prohibited from practicing their faith publicly, and they are not allowed to operate houses of worship.32 Baha’is have not been allowed to bury their dead in accordance with their religious laws.33 Given this restriction, Baha’i cemeteries have been desecrated, and in some cases turned into parks and cultural buildings. The right to convert from Islam to a religion or belief in the Islamic Republic of Iran, although not explicitly specified in the law, is in practice criminalised. In a previous draft of the Islamic Penal Code (2013), Article 225 was aiming at making the death penalty mandatory for convicted male apostates, or those found to be guilty of the crime of ertedad (apostasy). The draft article was withdrawn before the adoption of the revised Islamic Penal Code in 2013 and Iranian law does not expressly criminalise conversion from Islam to another religion.34 However, under Article 220 of the Islamic Penal Code and Article 167 of the Iranian Constitution, a judge may refer to Islamic law to rule on crimes not explicitly defined in the law. Apostasy is considered to be a hadd offence, a crime for which a fixed punishment is derived from the Qur’an or the Hadith.35 A judge may still invoke Articles 220 of the Penal Code and Article 167 of the Constitution to convict and sentence individuals accused of apostasy on the aforementioned basis. Commonly, however, the Iranian judiciary resorts to prosecuting people on national security charges instead of that of apostasy. Because Christian converts are considered as apostates by Iranian authorities,36 they are barred from accessing officially recognised Christian churches. Additionally, churches holding services for Farsi-speaking Christians have been forced to close by the Iranian government.37 As a result Christian converts resort to gather in informal meetings, commonly known as “house churches”.38 State authorities regularly conduct raids, 31 Baha’i International Community, https://www.bic.org/sites/default/files/pdf/iran/the_bahais_of_iran__a_persecuted_community.pdf 32 NGO joint submission to the Human Rights Committee, 2019, All Human Rights for All in Iran, Association for Human Rights in Kurdistan – Geneva (KMMK-G), Association for the Human Rights Of The Azerbaijani People In Iran (AHRAZ), Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC), OutRight International, Siamak Pourzand Foundation, Small Media, and Impact Iran, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=INT%2fCCPR%2fNGO%2fIRN%2f4231 7&Lang=en 33 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, 18 July 2019 https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N19/222/62/PDF/N1922262.pdf?OpenElement 34 Joint submission to the Human Rights Committee from All Human Rights for All in Iran, Association for Human Rights in Kurdistan – Geneva, Association for the Human Rights of the Azerbaijani People in Iran, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, OutRight International, Siamak Pourzand Foundation, Small Media, Impact Iran, 2020, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CCPR/Shared%20Documents/IRN/INT_CCPR_NGO_IRN_42317_E.pdf 35 Amnesty International https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1327082016ENGLISH.PDF 36 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, 18 July 2019, https://documents-ddsny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N19/222/62/PDF/N1922262.pdf?OpenElement 37 Joint submission to the Human Rights Committee from The World Evangelical Alliance, Open Doors, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Middle East Concern, Article 18, 29 May 2020 , https://articleeighteen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/F3430b2020-JointReport_Iran_HRCttee_ListOfIssues-dragged-1.pdf 38 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, 18 July 2019, https://documents-ddsny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N19/222/62/PDF/N1922262.pdf?OpenElement 5